This invention relates to novel compounds useful for treating cardiac arrhythmias and more particularly to novel disubstituted amidines useful for treating cardiac arrhythmias.
Cardiac arrhythmia may be defined as a variation from the normal rhythm of the heart beat. Different types of arrhythmias are recognized according to the portion of the heart which is affected and the way in which the beat departs from the norm. Thus, atrial flutter and fibrillation, ventricular flutter and fibrillation, sinus tachycardia and bradycardia are representative arrhythmias.
Cardiac arrhythmias are usually treated by administering drugs which help to restore the normal heartbeat. Such drugs as quinidine, procainamide, lidocaine, and propranolol have been used with some success in treating cardiac arrhythmias. The prior art drugs, however, have not been completely satisfactory. Undesirable side effects such as gastrointestinal distress, hypotension, myocardial depression, respiratory depression, and central nervous system (CNS) stimulation or depression have occurred with some of them.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide a new class of antiarrhythmic drugs. A further object is to provide novel disubstituted amidines useful in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.